Abu Dhabi accelerates in the adoption of blockchain: agreement between ADGM and Chainlink for tokenization

The Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), one of the main financial zones of the United Arab Emirates, has announced a strategic agreement with Chainlink to develop new tokenization models. The agreement, established by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), marks a further step towards the integration between traditional finance and blockchain technology.

According to the official announcement on March 24, the agreement will allow ADGM to leverage Chainlink’s technologies, including data feeds and interoperability tools. The initiative aims not only to support the tokenization of financial assets but also to stimulate the discussion on blockchain, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies in the region.

This collaboration is part of a broader process of digitalization of the financial sector in the United Arab Emirates, a country that has seen an increase of 41% in crypto application downloads in 2024 compared to the previous year. Furthermore, the region ranks third in the Henley Crypto Adoption Index 2024, confirming the growing spread of cryptocurrencies and their institutional acceptance.

 

Summary

Abu Dhabi expands its financial hub with the agreement between ADGM and Chainlink 

The Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) is a financial free zone established in 2015 with an autonomous legal system based on English Common Law. Its goal is to consolidate the role of Abu Dhabi as a global financial center, attract international companies, and expand the city’s financial sector.

At the end of 2024, ADGM hosted 134 asset and fund managers, overseeing a total of 166 investment funds. Additionally, the total number of financial institutions present grew to 275, with 79 new entries into the market, including giants like BlackRock, PGIM, and Morgan Stanley.

With the introduction of Chainlink technology, ADGM aims to strengthen its position by offering new tools for asset tokenization. The ability to integrate reliable data feeds and interoperability solutions will help bridge the gap between the traditional financial system and the new opportunities offered by blockchain.

The adoption of cryptocurrencies in the United Arab Emirates  

The spread of cryptocurrencies in the United Arab Emirates is experiencing strong growth, supported by favorable regulations and increasing institutional acceptance. Data indicates that crypto application downloads in 2024 have increased by 41% compared to the previous year, confirming the growing interest from investors and companies in the sector.

The United Arab Emirates stand out on the international scene thanks to their initiatives supporting crypto. Abu Dhabi, in particular, represents a point of reference. In December 2024, the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority officially recognized Tether (USDT) as an accepted digital asset, facilitating its integration into local financial services.

The investment sector is also showing a growing interest in cryptocurrencies. On March 12, Binance announced an investment by MGX, a company based in Abu Dhabi, amounting to 2 billion dollars, one of the largest financial operations in the history of the crypto sector.

Dubai accelerates on stablecoin  

Not only Abu Dhabi, but also Dubai is strengthening its position in the cryptocurrency sector. In February 2024, the city approved the stablecoin USDC and EURC, which have become the first two regulated stable cryptocurrencies in the local market. This choice demonstrates the openness of the United Arab Emirates towards the blockchain sector and the willingness to provide a clear and favorable regulatory framework for investors.

Towards an increasingly digital finance  

The agreement between ADGM and Chainlink represents a fundamental step towards the integration between traditional finance and blockchain. The tokenization of financial assets could revolutionize the sector, improving transparency, efficiency, and accessibility to global markets.
The emergence of cryptocurrencies in the United Arab Emirates confirms the central role of the region in financial innovation, pushing more and more companies and investors to consider Abu Dhabi and Dubai as strategic hubs for the digitalization of financial services.

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Deploying smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain

First of all, one or more developers must obviously create the smart contract by writing the appropriate lines of code, and then they must send it to the Ethereum network.

In technical terms, publishing it on the Ethereum blockchain means making all the nodes in the network receive and execute it. Once published, all instructions in it will always be executed by all nodes in exactly the same way.

Therefore, not only its publication but also the execution of instructions is irreversible once it is published on the blockchain.

Therefore, what really matters are the instructions it contains – which can be the most diverse – and how many people use it. Indeed, in order for the instructions of a smart contract to actually be executed, there must be one or more transactions that invoke them.

It is also worth remembering that these instructions generally involve the use of resources, such as data or tokens, so for them to actually be executed, all the conditions set as necessary must be met. 

Sometimes this data comes from outside, thanks to so-called oracles, while sometimes it simply comes from transactions on the blockchain.

Usually, the transaction that triggers the execution of the instructions contained in a smart contract involves the payment of a fee in ETH, and in many cases in order to actually trigger the execution also involves the payment or sending of tokens specific to the smart contract itself, or other smart contracts.

Technically, smart contracts are a type of account on the Ethereum blockchain, “controlled” by the network rather than a central entity. They can store ETH or tokens, and can also send transactions on the network autonomously.

A contract in the Solidity language would be like a kind of union of a code (the functions) and data (its state) located at a specific address on the Ethereum blockchain. Each contract contains declarations of state variables, functions, function modifiers, data structures and events.

The MiCA regulation, which came into force with the aim of uniformly regulating the cryptocurrency sector within the European Union, imposes new conditions that particularly concern:

  • – The mandatory authorization of crypto service providers
  • – The transparency of whitepapers
  • – The reserve requirement for stablecoin issuers
  • – Surveillance on systemic risks

One of the main impacts is precisely on stablecoins, like USDT, which will have to demonstrate that they have solid, transparent, and accessible reserve assets.

The platforms that wish to maintain the trading of these tokens within the European market will need to ensure that the assets are fully compliant.

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